1/ Rainer Weiss, who conceived of the idea of a gravitational wave detector (which eventually became LIGO), has died. I was at MIT when the first gravitational wave detection was announced, and he gave perhaps the most inspiring colloquium I have ever heard. news.mit.edu/2025/profess...

🏆 SPIE Maria Goeppert Mayer Award in Photonics: Pavel Cheben, NRC Canada, Principal Research Officer For pioneering contributions to silicon photonic waveguide devices, including the invention of metamaterial waveguides + advancing sub-wavelength integrated #photonics tech. spie.org/news/pavel-c...

How can quantum entanglement be instantaneous (so, “faster” than the speed of light) while also not violating causality? John Bell gave a classic analogy: "When the Queen dies in London, the Prince of Wales, lecturing in Australia, becomes instantaneously King".

TIL that the no-hair theorem actually hasn't been fully proven quite yet. It has in some limited cases, and even in the case of gravity without electromagnetism, it has only been partially resolved. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-hair...

Haven’t mentioned it publicly, but I’m looking for my next job! Please reach out if you hear of any interesting opportunities. You can learn more about who I am and what I can do at my portfolio site: reshef.ca

#Polaritons enable high performance angle-independent optical filters. Immensely enjoyed this collaboration between @thegatherlab.bsky.social, the Vandewal group at UHasselt and University of St Andrews rdcu.be/d2hUo

A great video on extreme nonlinear optics and the GZK limit (?), featured on the xkcd youtube channel. What if we shined collimated gamma ray bursts on to the moon? www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgaf...

Frequency conversion using approaches different from conventional nonlinearities opens the door to working with low-intensity incoherent light, perhaps eventually as slow as nightglow at night Fun and rewarding collaboration between UW-Madison, Stanford, and Argonne arxiv.org/abs/2411.18707

Mindblowing that we invented this word, and now it's part of the sum of human knowledge 💡

At the University of Franche-Comté, some incredible holograms were made in the 1970s. Here is a photo of one with some well-known characters, but have a good look at the right hand photo. Aside from the shadows, what beautiful ray-optics process is being accurately recorded by the hologram?

On the bright side, you will instantly see when it’s broken…

Lots of new people joining Bluesky and following me! I’m happy to follow most of you back… you should at the very least complete your profile and maybe make one post with a general introduction so I know who you are. Most people won’t follow empty accounts back ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This clip is mindblowing. What we used to do to simulate things before modern computers! #ITeachPhysics 🎢 youtu.be/foB9vjgdDjs?...

Scientists, when do we start lobbying for #Bluesky to implement native LaTeX support? #science #physics #mathematics 🧪⚛️

The founders of the Photonic Online Meeting #POM since 2019 are reunited on 🦋 @mickeykats.bsky.social @drarmani.bsky.social @riccard0.bsky.social @sylvaingigan.bsky.social @oradr.bsky.social and last but not least @igordownunder.bsky.social 💡Hello everyone! 📍https://photonicsonlinemeetup.org/

lol wut? I thought threads was enormous

There it is: TYPES OF PHOTONICS PAPER (2021). What deserves to be added from the last 3 years?

At lunch, we were chuckling over the many scientific papers in which the experimental setup figure, made in 3D rendering software, had a laser that cast a shadow. Light doesn’t cast a shadow of course! … so we made it cast one! Work done at uOttawa along with the Boyd group

Hello Bluesky optics/photonics/quantum people! We've packed up and moved on over here. Next week we'll start sharing our articles here. Happy weekend!

Congrats to Jeff and all his group members! I remember first discussing this over lunch when I was still at uO. So cool to see they finally succeeded!

So, I haven't seen any of the video and maybe I was completely cut... But the first episode is tonight! The topics are amazing! 💡🧪 www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/se...

For those of you who have been around bsky for a while, it’s worth your wild to try the Sky Follower Bridge again. There’s way more people to re-follow from Twitter

Remember the #nanohole array from yesterday? Well sometimes, #nanoholes are a first step into creating #nanopillars using a classic #nanofabrication trick, image conversation.

I photographed a laser in a dusty room ...

It’s so hard not to be cynical

💡Posted on Reddit today, the “Brocken Spectre”. Supposedly it’s a type of “Glory”: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(...

Back for a little while here, I tried this ‘starter pack’ for photonics & optics people: anyone else can follow up to 50 people at the click of a button: go.bsky.app/QrtPj7R. Put your name below and I will add you to the pack.

This article is a must-read for anyone in photonics. I wish I was given something like this as a first year grad student. It’s in plain English and clearly outlines challenges and opportunities. Published in Nat Rev Physics, sharing the arxiv version here: arxiv.org/abs/2308.00088

Fourier transform of Google Trends of Fourier transform 🧪

One day, when this chapter of my life is over, I’m going to write a KILLER book on the differences between doing research for academia vs industry. Their incentives are virtually there opposites of each other

Apparently there is a big influx of new people, so I used the (very clunky) system bsky has to create starter packs and created one for Physics (excluding Astrophysics, as someone else made a list for that). It is obviously incomplete, but it is a starting point go.bsky.app/CH3YDz7

My phone is blowing up with new follows today. What’s the story? Welcome! I’ll use the platform more if you do…

Since I've got a some new followers, I think it's tome to dust off the good ol' wood laser video. Yup, you got that right. A laser made out of wood! Fr, fr, no joke 👇👇💡🧪 youtu.be/z7Nj1_EQQu0?...

Here are the keywords that the Bluesky photonics feed picks up at present: To join pin the photonics feed, go here: bsky.app/profile/did:... To get added as a poster, send a post to me [or you can email]

This belongs in the photonics feed 💡

Cool to see @ianwilliamson.bsky.social @emilyhaworth.bsky.social and @ferryprins.bsky.social on here!

AI-generated optical illusions. Dear lord some of these are trippy dangeng.github.io/visual_anagr...

#PostdocJobs If you are interested (or know anyone who might be) to work with me on optical computing, and have experience with fs lasers, take a look at jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr... (and contact me!) #Optics #Physics

Goldphene? arxiv.org/pdf/2311.078...

Welcome to photonics bluesky @nicolomaccaferri.bsky.social !

Hello Bluesky! 👋 We’re Optica, the society advancing optics and photonics worldwide. We’re excited to share the latest research, technology and updates in light science! 💡

Welcome to photonics bluesky @holswright.bsky.social !

Welcome to photonics bluesky @isandall.bsky.social !

Seems like @opticapubsgroup.bsky.social and @opnmagazine.bsky.social just got here too. Welcome! 💡

Welcome to #photonics Bluesky @acalalesina.bsky.social !💡

So many misconceptions about putting metal in the microwave oven. Yes, you can leave the metal spoon in your tea/coffee/soup/stew. No, it won't spark or burn you! In fact, the metal won't absorb any microwaves. [Pic is before & after, 45s on high. Temp scale on right is useful.] #iteachphysics 💡🧪

It's been another week, y'all probably have a whole bunch of new codes. Please contribute! Also if you have photonics friends who wanna join have them contact me or Mikhail!

Hey there Bluesky! I'm a former astrophysicist working in the data science & ml space, and I've been hoping to make the switch to climate work. Does anybody know of any open remote or 🇨🇦 roles that might be relevant? Thank you!!

Photonics Online Meetup (POM23) is a little over a wk away! Don't forget to register (for free!) to join on Gathertown for live streaming, posters, & more. Optica student chapters: apply for funding to support a Hub! #OpenAccess #free #SciSky #Acadsky photonicsonlinemeetup.org/registration/ 🧪 💡

I didn’t fact-check this, but I found it too interesting not to share 😂